Blue Bell man jailed for having indecent contact with coworker after company Christmas party

By
Carl Hessler Jr., The Mercury

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

NORRISTOWN — A Blue Bell man faces several years of court supervision for having indecent contact with a female co-worker who was unconscious from intoxication after a business Christmas party.

Ryan Buterbaugh, 26, of the 1000 block of DeKalb Pike, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11˝-to-23 months in the county jail, to be followed by eight years’ probation, after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of indecent assault of an unconscious person in connection with the Dec. 28, 2010, incident inside a rented room at the Summerfield Suites on East Germantown Pike in East Norriton, where some restaurant co-workers stayed after a company Christmas party.

“Jail time was necessary here to send a message that preying on somebody in such a vulnerable situation will not be tolerated,” said Assistant District Attorney Jordan Friter, who sought jail time against Buterbaugh.

Judge Thomas C. Branca said Buterbaugh is eligible for the jail’s work release program but only after serving at least three months of incarceration. During his parole and probationary period, Buterbaugh will be monitored by officials of the county probation department’s sex offender supervision division.

Buterbaugh will have to report his address to state police after he’s released from jail to comply with the state’s Megan’s Law. Buterbaugh is prohibited from having any contact with the victim as a condition of the sentence.

“It was a fair sentence based on the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case,” said defense lawyer Martin P. Mullaney, who argued for leniency on behalf of Buterbaugh. “The defendant and victim were both friends and coworkers and the entire incident revolved around the excessive use and abuse of alcohol at their company Christmas party.”

Other charges of rape, sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault were dismissed against Buterbaugh, who potentially faced state prison time had he been convicted at trial of all charges.

An investigation of Buterbaugh began at 6:15 a.m. Dec. 28 when East Norriton police responded to the hotel for a report of the sexual assault of a woman having occurred in a multi-room suite with a living area and two bedrooms.

The investigation determined the victim and several co-workers, all of whom worked at a Blue Bell area restaurant, had checked into a room at the hotel on Dec. 27 in preparation for a company Christmas party to be held that night at a Conshohocken pub.

“There were no assigned beds or assigned rooms, everyone was bunking at will,” Mullaney claimed.

But Friter alleged the victim believed that the room was to be for female employees only. However, when the woman arrived at the room, Buterbaugh and two other male co-workers were already at the room, court papers indicate.

The victim asked to have the king size bed to share with other female employees who were supposed to stay in the suite but had not yet arrived, according to the criminal complaint filed by East Norriton Detective Sergeant Peter Mastrocola.

“Buterbaugh told her that he claimed it because he was looking for spooning partners. (The woman) told him that she was not interested in that and she claimed one of the full size beds in the other bedroom,” Mastrocola alleged.

The victim and her co-workers then proceeded to a Conshohocken pub for the Christmas party. While at the party, the victim consumed alcohol and became visibly intoxicated to the point where another co-worker was asked to drive her back to the room at the Summerfield Suites, well before the party ended, detectives alleged. That co-worker helped the victim to her room at about 12:30 a.m. and then returned to the party, detectives said. When the co-worker left, the woman was in the full size bed she had claimed earlier, court documents indicate.

At about 1:45 a.m. Buterbaugh returned to the hotel room. Sometime after Buterbaugh’s return, the woman awoke to find Buterbaugh in her bed having indecent contact with her, detectives alleged.

The woman told Buterbaugh to stop and she pushed him away from her and she got out of bed, court documents indicate.

“(The victim) then surveyed the hotel room and saw that none of the other female employees who were supposed to stay in the suite were there and that (a second male co-worker) was the only other person in the suite,” Mastrocola alleged.

The second full size bed in the room the victim had claimed was empty and the second male co-worker was asleep in the king size bed in the second bedroom, court papers indicate.

The woman gathered her belongings and then left the hotel at about 5:15 a.m. and police were notified shortly thereafter, court documents indicate.